A lovely and much-anticipated bike rack arrived at the off-site space today, made of recycled plastic (not only ecological but unattractive to scrap metal thieves).
Unfortunately there’s no way to park a bike on it. Our bike commuters couldn’t wrangle an angle that would get a U-lock around the bike and the rack.
Facilities is on the case and hopefully we’ll soon have something that functions. Our parameters are somewhat limited at the off-site space since the owners of the building are not on board with the University-wide green initiatives. They are content to devote resources to car parking but don’t give a hoot about cyclists.
Until then we’re left wondering — what’s the deal with manufacturers who make bike racks that don’t fit bikes? This is a wider problem that discourages cycling. Take a look sometime at bike parking around campus and you’ll see scores of bikes falling over, being damaged, crammed into inappropriate racks. Because, um, the bike racks don’t fit bikes.
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